Death Cab for Cutie

"Your New Twin-Size Bed"

by John Vettese

I'm moving next month, and moving means downsizing. It's never a fun process, going through stuff you've lugged from home to home, peeling away accumulations, leaving just enough room to accumulate more. Do I really need this decade-old letter from a friend when we've not spoken in seven years? Or these college-era attempts at writing "short stories" or "treatments"? On the one hand, it's simply practical; on the other, certainly metaphorical, indicative of leaving one's past behind, resignation to the realities of adulthood, acceptance of mortality, and etc. and so forth. These are themes that authors and songwriters have struggled with for ages, with varying degrees of success. Ben Gibbard takes a noble stab in "Your New Twin-Size Bed," where his character lies in the titular bed, having just ditched the queen because it was "more space than you would need." For this person, the bed signifies a space that will never be shared, a love that's never going to arrive, and its disposal is a coming to terms. A clumsy metaphor, sure, but Gibbard has a knack for taking those (remember "License and Registration"?) and pulling them off. As the song's ring construct winds down, the character reaches an epiphany: "What's the point of holding on to what never gets used?" But that's just the naval-gazing downside. Downsizing, literal or figurative, might not be fun, but it's freeing in the end.

Hear "Your New Twin-Size Bed" on Death Cab for Cutie's Narrow Stairs, which I will certainly be jamming to in my U-Haul.